Back in 2006 when I started Afrobella, the natural hair scene was just beginning to form. There was no social media yet, there were a few bloggers and a lot of online forums and Fotki posts (seriously, before Instagram and Tumblr, there was Fotki). There were a few natural hair brands that had big buzz…
Hair
6 Tips to Better Natural Hair Care That I Learned in Jamaica With Strength of Nature
So I went to Jamaica for the first time, on a special beauty editor’s trip planned by the Strength of Nature line of hair products. We had a LOT of fun, obviously (cause Jamaica), but we also learned a LOT. Hairstylist geniuses Felicia Leatherwood and Pamela Hogan were on hand to give a really informative…
Love Your Locs – 5 Tips For Red Carpet Worthy Loc Style
Much has been said within the last few weeks about locs and the red carpet, much of it said by folks who know little about locs in the first place. I’ll be honest with you, I found it hard to rustle up a response to the whole Giuliana Rancic/Zendaya loctroversy, because in all my…
Beauty Fit For a Queen – My MBIB Top Picks!
One of the more fun parts of partnering with My Black is Beautiful has been testing and trying out the awesome array of P&G Beauty products in order to narrow down my top picks. There are SO many brands under the P&G Beauty umbrella. Which ones define Beauty Fit for a Queen? It was my…
DIY Beauty Treatments For Blizzards
Whenever NYC expects a snow storm, it becomes a worst case scenario snowpocalypse for the ages media story, covered for days on the national nightly news in the most dire terms. Whenever Chicago expects a snowstorm, it’s business as usual. We know things are bad if schools close. In the five years that I’ve lived…
15 Beauty Products That You Need in 2015
New year, same you – but with a fresh new chance to update and upgrade your life. Maybe it’s time to invest in a new wardrobe. Maybe get those running shoes you’vebeen meaning to invest in. It’s also time to consider upgrading your beauty product collection, and acquiring some new makeup, skincare, body products…
RIP, Titi Branch. Please Pray For the Miss Jessie’s Family
The news started trickling through via social media yesterday and I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to believe it. Then people started tweeting me and DMing me and sending me private messages. I read the posts on Facebook, via NV Magazine, via Lipstick Alley, via the now-private video by filmmaker Andre Robert Lee simply titled…
101 Independent Black Owned Businesses to Support for Blackout Friday
Things weren’t supposed to go this way, not according to my editorial calendar. This was supposed to be a buildup to Thanksgiving week. I was working on fun, lighthearted posts about recipes and Black Friday deals. Yay! Shopping! And now, none of that seems right anymore. Not after Ferguson. On Monday November 24th, in an…
5 Fabulous Ways Solange Reinvented Traditional Wedding Rules
There was a wedding in my family this summer, and one of the things that I had forgotten about weddings and being a bride was the number of RULES. My husband and I tied the knot twelve years ago and we were babes in the woods when we did it. The rules that we broke…
Nut Allergies and Natural Hair Products – What To Do If You’re Allergic to Shea
It’s the base ingredient of so many natural hair and skincare products, and it’s heralded as a miraculous moisturizer that’s essential for women with natural hair. But what happens when you’re allergic to the thing that everyone else loves? What happens if you have a nut allergy, and shea butter is your enemy, and all…